Bad habits, if not checked in season, have a tendency to grow worse. As the Colonel advanced in years his liking for strong drink increased to such an extent that the _in vino veritas_ stage was, we fear, reached pretty often. To such a state of things his solitary life doubtless conduced. He had an iron constitution, however, and it does not appear that his intemperate habits during the evening of his life materially shortened his days. He lived long enough to see the prosperity of his settlement fully assured. For many years prior to his death it appears to have been his cherished desire to bequeath his large estate to one of the male descendants of the Talbot family, and with this view he invited one of his sister's sons, Mr. Julius Airey, to come over from England and reside with him at Port Talbot. This young gentleman accordingly came to reside there, but the dull, monotonous life he was obliged to lead, and the Colonel's eccentricities, were ill calculated to engage the affections of a youth just verging on manhood; and after rusticating, without companions or equals in either birth or education, for some time, he returned to England and relinquished whatever claims he might consider he had on his uncle. Some years later a younger brother of Julius, Colonel Airey, Military Secretary at the Horse Guards, ventured upon a similar experiment, and came out to Canada with his family to live at Port Talbot. About this time the Colonel's health began seriously to fail, and his habits began to gain greater hold upon him than ever. As a necessary consequence he became crabbed and irritable. The uncle and nephew could not get on together. "The former," says his biographer, "had been accustomed for the greater portion of his life to suit the convenience of his domestics, and, in common with the inhabitants of the country, to dine at noon; the latter was accustomed to wait for the buglecall, till seven o'clock in the evening. Colonel Talbot could, on special occasions, accommodate himself to the habits of his guests, but to be regularly harnessed up for the mess every day was too much to expect from so old a man; no wonder he kicked in the traces. He soon came to the determination of keeping up a separate establishment, and another spacious mansion was erected adjoining Colonel Airey's, where he might, he thought, live as he pleased. But all would not do, the old bird had been disturbed in his nest, and he could not be reconciled." He determined to leave Canada, and to end his days in the Old World. He transferred the Port Talbot estate, valued at £10,000, together with 13,000 acres of land in the adjoining township of Aldborough, to Colonel Airey. This transfer, however, left more than half of his property in his own hands, and he was still a man of great wealth. Acting on his determination to leave Canada, he started, in his eightieth year, for Europe. Upon reaching London, only a day's journey from Port Talbot, he was prostrated by illness, and was confined to his bed for nearly a month. He rallied, however, and resumed his journey. In due time he reached London the Greater. He was accompanied on the voyage by Mr. George McBeth, the successor to the situation of Jeffery Hunter, who had died some years before. McBeth had gained complete ascendancy over the Colonel's failing mind. Being a young man of some education, and a good deal of finesse, he was treated by his master as a companion rather than as a servant, and the latter merited his master's regard by nursing him with much care and attention.